C11 Chapter 11

The soldiers even used that line to shut people down. Rumor had it he’d reached a level of skill no one his age should’ve been able to touch—and his mind was so sharp it was downright scary.

Seeing General Lang fall silent, she rolled her eyes at him. “If we don’t get killed by monsters first, we’ll be lucky. Running for our lives is the priority. Now—have the troops move as quietly as possible and head for the F13 passage.”

General Lang: “...” Was that… contempt?

She noticed General Lang staring at her without moving.

Then it hit her: back then, she and Huangtian had marked the entrances with numbers so they could tell them apart. But now the entrances had nothing on them—and even if they did, General Lang and his soldiers probably wouldn’t know what any of it meant.

She rubbed her forehead, helpless. “Fine. I’ll lead.”

Right then, a shadow suddenly lunged straight at Tang Yao.

In the past, with her reflexes, she would’ve dodged easily. But in this body—probably malnourished or something—she was skinny yet weirdly heavy, and nowhere near as quick.

That was why she’d stepped on General Lang’s shoulder earlier. Otherwise, turning on the light source was something she could’ve handled alone.

Either way, Tang Yao wasn’t about to sit there and die. When it comes down to it, staying alive matters most. In a panic, she didn’t have time to worry about personal space—she slammed straight into General Lang’s chest.

The world spun. General Lang had already pivoted with her and shifted them several feet to the side.

She caught a faint, hard-to-place scent from him—almost like lilies?

Who would’ve thought a man in heavy armor would smell that good?

“Well done.” With how sudden it was—and how close—he might not have been able to save her otherwise.

He was praising her? And not saying a word about boundaries?

She pulled herself out of his arms and looked up. The monster that had attacked her was crouched not far away.

It looked like a dried-up, skeletal figure—no flesh left at all, just wrinkled, leathery skin stretched tight over bone. Its teeth hung loose and exposed. Only its eyes were different: a vivid, blood-red.

No doubt about it—this was the monster in the tomb.

Not a zombie, but somehow even more terrifying and dangerous.

Back then, she and Huangtian hadn’t even had time to name this kind of thing, so she honestly didn’t know what to call it.

Fine. A monster, then.

The monster fixed its gaze on the two of them and advanced step by step.

Behind it—“whoosh,” “whoosh,” “whoosh”—several more monsters darted out. Every one of them locked those crimson eyes on the pair like predators sighting prey.

Its movements were stiff, yet it carried a suffocating, ghostlike pressure. Tang Yao found herself backing up without thinking—until General Lang stepped in front of her and said, “Go back and get the soldiers out through the chamber. I’ll be right behind you!”

There was no other choice. The longer they stalled, the more of these things would show up.

“Their weak spot is their eyes!” she called, then sprinted toward the chamber without looking back.

When she reached it, she found the place already in chaos.

The monsters had poured out of every passage and were converging on the chamber where the most people were.

They were horrifying to look at, and they’d come out of nowhere, so the soldiers were badly shaken. But they were well-trained—they didn’t retreat. They grabbed their weapons and fought.

It didn’t matter. These monsters couldn’t be killed. Even if you hacked off an arm or a leg, the severed parts still moved—flailing, flying, grabbing at throats, stabbing at eyes—impossible to guard against...

In just moments, more than a dozen men were already wounded, screaming in agony.